College athletes from overseas might be stuck at home

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma has asked for federal help in getting his team back to campus this summer.

The Huskies, who are scheduled to gather in Storrs for summer workouts on July 26, have three foreign players on their roster: Anna Makurat, a sophomore from Poland; Nika Muhl, a freshman from Croatia; and Aaliyah Edwards, a freshman from Ontario, Canada.

They, like thousands of other U.S. college students from foreign countries, are still overseas because of international travel bans instituted as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Auriemma said Wednesday.

Muhl can't get a visa because the embassy in Zagreb is closed, Auriemma said. Makurat isn't a U.S. citizen and can't get a flight into the states and Edwards can no longer just drive across the Canadian border, he said.

“These issues are going to be really, really difficult to overcome,” Auriemma said. “We've got some really good people in Washington working on it and hopefully we can work with the NCAA and say, ‘OK, how do we get this done?"’

UConn has about 40 international athletes still overseas, the school said.

The NCAA says there are over 20,000 international student-athletes enrolled to compete at its member schools. It has not said how many are believed to still be overseas and referred questions Wednesday to the individual schools who may be having an issue.

Nebraska men's basketball spokesman Shamus McKnight said voluntary workouts there began last month without expected starters Yvan Ouedraogo and Thorir Thorbjarnarson, who remain home in France and Iceland.

“They can't fly back at the moment," he said. “They are just waiting for an update from their countries or the United States.”

Peter Corasaniti, the director of basketball operations at...